Descartes 's Meditations On The Existence Of God

Descartes 's Meditations On The Existence Of God

929 WordsOct 27th, 20144 Pages

Descartes sets out in his meditations to prove that something exists beyond any doubt. He determines that the only way to prove anything outside of his mind is to prove the existence of his idea of God. The ideas that come from his process are interesting, but he doesn’t prove the existence of God is undeniable. Several arguments Descartes uses to claim God exists, don’t hold up to what he has proved up to that point in his meditations. The first being his use of the causal principle on which the rest of his argument seems to rely.
Descartes begins the meditations in an effort to wipe out previous knowledge and rebuild it only on knowledge he can know without a doubt. Going through all he believes and deciding if he should still believe is too arduous a task so he goes through several steps and determines that everything can be doubted, even the science and mathematics we know. First he says we can’t trust what we know from our senses because they can deceive us, for example feeling a hat on your head after you remove it. He then says there is no way for him to believe any event because he could be dreaming. Sometimes when he dreams he thinks he’s awake so he knows his mind can’t tell the difference. Descartes remembers his idea of God and realizes God can do anything, including deceive him about what he thinks is real. He decides a perfect God wouldn’t deceive, so he imagines an evil genius creating us and deceiving us at all times. Now, he can put all previous knowledge…

Is there truly a God or something superior to us? Yes of course. Conversely, atheists are people who don’t believe that God or a divine being exists. For the most part, atheists have acknowledged that the most reasonable conclusions are the ones that have the best evidential support. They have argued that the evidence in favor of God’s existence is too weak or the arguments in favor of concluding there is no God are more compelling. Two ancient philosophers, Descartes and Nietzsche’s have different…

Descartes and the Existence of God
Once Descartes has realized that he can know with certainty that “I exist” is true, he continues to build on his foundation of truths. The truth about the nature of God, proof of God’s existence, and the nature of corporeal objects are considered, among others, after Descartes proves his existence. Descartes’ principal task in the Meditations was to devise a system that would bring him to the truth. He wanted to build a foundation from which all further philosophical…

Descartes' Third Meditation: Proof of God's Existence
In Rene Descartes Meditations on First Philosophy, Descartes is seeking to find a system of stable, lasting and certain knowledge, which he can ultimately regard as the Truth. In his methodical quest to carry out his task, Descartes eventually arrives at the proverbial fork in the road: how to bridge the knowledge of self with that of the rest of the world. Descartesâ€™ answer to this is to prove the existence of God. The purpose of this essay…

Minglai Dong
Descartes Third Meditation: Recommended Topic 2
Descartes’ third meditation on First Philosophy is all about the existence of God. There are many things that Descartes talks about in this meditation. His intentions are to create a set of proofs or arguments that will irrefutably prove God’s existence. He already believes that God exists but he is mainly trying to dispute the reasons why God might not exist or how God may be a deceiver. The definition of God to Descartes can be summed…

In A Discourse on the Method, Descartes attempted to prove the existence of God in a priori manner. He did not trust his own senses when trying to prove the existence of God and therefore he relied on the ontological argument. By making the same assumption made by Anselm, which was that an ontological argument assumes that existence is a predicate of God, Descartes is able to conclude that ‘God exists’ is true by definition because the subject ‘God’, who already contains all perfections, already…

Take Home Exam #2 Part One:
Descartes was a famous French philosopher in the mid 1500’s. He had a very particular argument that still confuses and or makes sense to many people today. His argument is basically in regards to the existence of God. The way he describes this argument is by breaking it down by two principles. Those two principles are the “Principle of Sufficient Reason” and the “Principle of Adequate Reality.”
In the Principle of sufficient Reason, Descartes points out that there is a…

paper, I offer a reconstruction of Descartes argument for God’s existence in the Third Meditation. Descartes tries to prove the existence of God with an argument that proceeds from the clear and distinct idea of an infinite being to the existence of himself. He believes that his clear and distinct idea of an infinite being with infinite “objective reality” leads to the occurrence of the “Special Causal Principle”. I will start by discussing and analyzing Descartes clear and distinct idea of an infinite…

The existence of God has been a question since the idea of God was conceived. Descartes tries to prove Gods existence, to disprove his Evil demon theory, and to show that there is without a doubt something external to ones own existence. He is looking for a definite certainty, a foundation for which he can base all of his beliefs and know for a fact that they are true.
Descartes overall project is to find a definite certainty on which he can base all his knowledge and beliefs. A foundation…

to illustrate that the arguments regarding the existence of God and the fear of deception in Descartes’ Meditations on First Philosophy, are quite weak and do not justify his conclusions. To support these claims, I will begin by outlining two specific meditations and explain the proposed arguments. Later, I will critically analyze his arguments, revealing unjust conclusions. Doubts surrounding the text include the suggested characteristics of God, the condition of perfection, and the nature of…

Descartes' Proof of the Existence of God in Meditation Three
This paper is intended to explain and evaluate Descartes' proof for the existence of god in Meditation Three. It shall show the weaknesses in the proof, but also give credit to the strengths in his proof. It will give a background of what Descartes has already accepted as what he truly knows. The paper will also state Descartes two major points for the existence of God and why the points can easily be proven false. The paper will…